Complete Live Report

Live commentary by:

Hedwig Kroner

12:29:00 CEST

Hello cycling lovers, and welcome back to our Live coverage of the 2009 Tour de France. Today promises to be an epic stage, the second of three summit finishes at this year's Tour. We hope to see some decisive GC action on the road to Switzerland... stay tuned!

Before taking the start in Pontarlier, the peloton has paused for a minute of silence in remebrance of the 61-year-old woman who died in an accident involving a police motorcycle yesterday. It is always tragic when these things happen.

The first big news today is the fact that Quick Step sprinter Tom Boonen has abandoned this morning. The Belgian suffers from severe digestion problems and could not take the start of stage 15.

12:30:33 CEST

Unfortunately, the weather in Eastern France is not too good, there is a risk of some rain showers. But the sun is currently out on the finish in Verbier, so the riders are headed towards better conditions.

12:33:00 CEST

The battle for the polka dot jersey will continue today between Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) and Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel). The Italian has added four more points to his tally by being the first to cross today's first climb, the Côte du Rafour. He was followed by Pierrick Fedrigo (Bbox) and Martinez in that order.

185.5km remaining from 207.5km

12:40:42 CEST

The race is fast, and the bunch has already passed the second climb of this stage. Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) accelerated before the ascent, but was caught by Pellizotti, who again posted the best time at the summit. Chavanel got second, with Martinez third.

12:44:00 CEST

Yesterday, we were witnesses to another "fait divers" as they call it in French, when Bernard Hinault knocked an intruder off the ceremonial podium in Besancon. That was another impressive push by the man known as the "badger", also famous for his outspoken words on current racing.

12:46:22 CEST

The bunch is racing down the descent, all together. Bbox's Arashiro and Rabobank's Flecha punctured, and are chasing back on within the team car caravan.

12:53:53 CEST

There is a big chance that AG2R will be losing the yellow jersey today. Rinaldo Nocentini may not be a bad climber, but if the race unfolds as expected - as hoped - we should see some GC contenders attacking on the final climb to Verbier today. We doubt he will be able to hold their wheels once the going gets really tough.

A breakaway has yet to be established. The peloton will soon tackle the next ascent, the Côte de la Carrière - maybe someone will be able to jump away then!

12:59:12 CEST

Cyclingnews blogger Andy Schleck has also given us some insight lately. The Luxembourger is rated as a podium contender in Paris, but knows that competition is sharp: He still expects Cadel Evans and Carlos Sastre to ride strongly and improve their placings, and also has a great deal of respect for Bradley Wiggins and current white jersey wearer Tony Martin.

165.5km remaining from 207.5km

13:04:01 CEST

Here goes a climber with stage victory ambitions: David Moncoutié (Cofidis) has a bit of a gap over the bunch now. Let's see if someone goes with him.

13:05:23 CEST

The Frenchman has been denied an escape. Now, Pellizotti is again up there, hoping to consolidate his lead in the mountains classification.

13:07:09 CEST

A few riders have bridged up to Pellizotti now, and they have about 100 metres advance over the bunch.

13:15:40 CEST

Four rider are trying to bridge up to them: Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin), Christophe Kern, Amael Moinard (both Cofidis) and Simon Spilak (Lampre). Interesting: Cofidis sends out antoher two riders to help Moncoutié. He should be motivated for today's finish in Verbier, as he has given up hope for the polkadot jersey.

13:17:55 CEST

The four chasers have joined the break. We have 12 riders out there; they have a 30 seconds gap.

155.5km remaining from 207.5km

13:19:39 CEST

They are still climbing the Côte de la Carrière. With 12 men, they stand a good chance to get away.

13:23:59 CEST

Interesting to note that Van den Broeck is also out there. He could be of valuable help to his team leader Cadel Evans later on. The same goes for Cancellara, who should be working for Andy Schleck. Then again, the Swiss time trial champion has proven that he can also climb - and a victory in his home country would surely be appealing!

13:28:37 CEST

Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel), David Millar (Garmin) and Tony Martin (Columbia) have joined the escape! We now have 15 riders off the front, and a high-quality group going.

At the summit of the climb, Kern has snatched the points from Pellizotti, who once again outsprinted Martinez. The bunch crossed the KOM line 40 seconds behind the escape.

13:32:26 CEST

White jersey wearer Martin is currently eighth on general classification, only one minute behind Nocentini. He could be dangerous and might have a negative impact on the break...

141.5km remaining from 207.5km

13:36:08 CEST

Hesjedal may have realized this and has attacked the group. He has a small gap of eight seconds, with the bunch still looming very close, 30 seconds behind the breakaway.

137.5km remaining from 207.5km

13:41:30 CEST

Millar, Martinez, Martin, Pellizotti, Arroyo and Kern are back inside the bunch, where Juan Antonio Flecha has countered.

13:46:45 CEST

Hesjedal now has 1.20 minutes over the peloton and 27 seconds over the chasers. Not bad at all!

Back in the peloton, Astana is controling the pace.

13:48:55 CEST

The peloton is letting the break go. It is already at two minutes from Hesjedal.

13:51:42 CEST

Hesjedal sits up in the descent of the Côte du Prevenloup. He will have more opportunities if he waits for the others.

130km remaining from 207.5km

13:53:45 CEST

The escape has caught Hesjedal, with Flecha still chasing at about 29 seconds.

126km remaining from 207.5km

13:59:22 CEST

Flecha is strong today, he has joined the leaders now. We have ten escapees, with just over two minutes advantage.

In the break, Mikel Astarloza is the best-placed rider in 18th position, at 3.02 on GC. This means they might not be given that much of a gap in any case.

14:04:33 CEST

It's been quite a stressful first part of the stage, raced rapidly with plenty of attacks. Now, a bit of peace is reigning inside the bunch, with Stuart O'Grady (Saxo Bank) riding next to Lance Armstrong, the two engaged in conversation.

14:11:56 CEST

The Australian has Andy Schleck on his wheel. It is not yet time for any GC action, but the Luxembourg champion still prefers to ride to the front of the bunch...

Former rider Laurent Jalabert has his own thoughts on what happened in yesterday's stage, when George Hincapie lost out on the yellow jersey for just five seconds. Apparently, the Frenchman went to see Hincapie this morning, who was still upset about not taking the overall lead and partly blamed the Astana team for this. Jalabert said that Hincapie was disappointed that his former teammates did not give him a greater gap to be sure that he would take the jersey.

117km remaining from 207.5km

14:13:32 CEST

Astarloza now is the maillot jaune virtuel. The escape group of ten riders has more than 3.30 minutes over the bunch with 117 kilometres still remaining.

14:20:06 CEST

The riders are approaching the feed zone. The sun is out now, with only a few scattered clouds up in the Swiss sky. The roads are undulating, but Swiss tarmac is definitely a smooth ride.

They are driving through a valley now. The whole Astana team is lined up in front of the peloton.

14:25:20 CEST

The bunch is strong out, the pace should be picking up a bit.

14:34:36 CEST

At the feed point, Vladimir Efimkin (AG2R) has abandoned. The Russian crashed badly the other day, and suffered injuries to his face, shoulder and ribcage. That's a blow to the French team, which still aims at defending Nocentini's yellow jersey today.

97km remaining from 207.5km

14:42:17 CEST

The gap is quite constant around four minutes now for the ten leaders, who each take turns in the wind.

Behind, Andreas Klöden (Astana) dropped back to his team car to check something on his race radio receiver. Chasing back up now.

The road starts to be uphill at the foot of the Col des Mosses (Cat. 2), but the real gradients will only be coming up in about 15 kilometres.

14:49:18 CEST

Swiss champion Cancellara should be enjoying his ride today. Plenty of people on the roadside to cheer him on - who knows, the 2009 Tour de Suisse winner could even fly to a victory today. The final climb may be hard (8.8km at 7.5%), but it is not the Mont Ventoux yet, either.

14:51:15 CEST

'Red lantern' Kenny Van Hummel (Skil) is having difficulties as soon as the road climbs a bit. Hopefully he will be able to hold on to the autobus later on, otherwise he might end up a DNF...

14:57:14 CEST

The race continues to unfold under bright sunshine, although it is not very hot: only 13° Celsius, with a very light headwind. Dimitri Murayev leads out the bunch, elbows on his handlebars. It's still very rolling.

85km remaining from 207.5km

15:02:13 CEST

Moncoutié got a bike change at the foot of the Col des Mosses. The gap between the break and the bunch is currently 3.37 minutes.

The climb starts now.

15:03:27 CEST

There are many spectators out on the first slopes of the ascent. Van Den Broeck leads the break, with Swiss champ Cancellara in third position.

15:06:21 CEST

The peloton is also getting ready for the mountain. Astana and Garmin riders are in the front - will the first attacks come on this climb already? It is a long way between this climb and the last one up to Verbier, though.

Haussler gets some bottles for his Cervélo teammates. What are Sastre's plans?

80km remaining from 207.5km

15:12:00 CEST

The escapees' advantage is back to about four minutes as they ride through a forest.

Astana leading the bunch out, but Armstrong is not with them. It looks like he's sitting right in the middle of the pack - hiding?

15:13:31 CEST

The last rider on GC, Van Hummel (Skil) has lost contact with the bunch. It will be very hard for him to finish the stage on his own...

15:16:08 CEST

Armstrong is still riding to the back end of the bunch, whereas all of his Astana teammates are in front. He must be certain that nothing will happen on this climb! Risky business...

76km remaining from 207.5km

15:22:10 CEST

Silence's Van den Broeck could also be a good bet for the stage win. He has apparently reconnoitred this stage after the Dauphiné... if the bunch comes back on the break on the final climb, he will also be of good value to his team leader Cadel Evans.

15:27:11 CEST

Popovych gets some water for his team, including Armstrong, still deep inside the peloton. Nothing happens, they are taking it easy.

15:29:11 CEST

Moncoutié leads the break as the approach the summit. People love this!

72km remaining from 207.5km

15:31:00 CEST

There is some tailwind on this climb, which should help the breakaway. Astarloza sprints to take the KOM points!

15:34:14 CEST

Here comes the bunch.... There are plenty of motorhomes parked on the sides of the road, too. Let's see. They are 3.26 minutes back at the summit.

15:38:48 CEST

It's a fast descent, they are really speeding down towards the valley leading to the final climb. That's where it's going to happen, we hope!

15:41:47 CEST

Cancellara is off the front now... he's got maybe 200 metres over the rest of the break. We wonder - would he really try to go for it on his own? It is still 60 kilometres to the finish.

15:44:05 CEST

Some Liquigas riders are driviing the bunch now together with Astana. We haven't seen much of Vincenzo Nibali yet, but he is only a few seconds behind Andy Schleck in the best young rider classification.

55km remaining from 207.5km

15:49:19 CEST

The chasing escapees have caught Cancellara now again. It would have been a bit much to attempt a solo move at this point - even for 'Spartacus'! Still, the Swiss champion makes the pace; he doesn't want to lose any time and should be highly motivated.

They are on the flat part now, riding through Aigle, where the UCI's headquarters and the World Cycling Centre are located.

The gap is still unchanged, four minutes.

15:51:19 CEST

Liquigas is still helping Astana in the pace making as they drive through some Swiss vineyards.

15:57:34 CEST

There is still a light back wind down in the valley. This will help the break, but it might still be caught before the finish as it failed to build up a sufficient advantage due to the presence of Astarloza, 18th on general classification at 3.02 minutes of the leader, AG2R's Rinaldo Nocentini.

16:00:25 CEST

Armstrong is back with his teammates at the front of the peloton. He took some time out earlier on the Col des Mosses and hid inside the bunch, letting his fellow Astana riders do their job alone.

40km remaining from 207.5km

16:06:20 CEST

The bunch is strung out on these relatively flat and straight roads through the Vaud valley. It's still sunny, there shouldn't be any surprises as to the weather on the final climb.

16:12:14 CEST

The leader's advantage is coming down a bit now, as Astana is putting the pace on.

Andy Schleck is getting a wheel change. He is being led back onto the peloton by O'Grady and Voigt.

33km remaining from 207.5km

16:14:27 CEST

Liquigas clearly has objectives on this final climb to Verbier - either for Pellizotti and his olka dot jersey, or for Roman Kreuziger and Vincenzo Nibali. The gap is down to 3.26 minutes.

16:17:42 CEST

Well, this should help Astana as Liquigas is really sharing the work with them, with three riders on the front now.

16:20:20 CEST

Cyclingnews blogger Ryder Hesjedal, who's also in the breakaway, wrote in during the week that he had struggled on stage 13 into Colmar. He's been looking a lot better today in Switzerland!

16:24:36 CEST

There is a huge crowd in Martigny to greet the breakaway as they drive through the intermediate sprint.

24km remaining from 207.5km

16:26:39 CEST

The road is ascending slowly, but steadily from here. The gap is down to three minutes. Not much, if we suppose that there will be attacks of the overall favourites once they are on the final eight kilometers.

21km remaining from 207.5km

16:31:23 CEST

Team Milram are also to the front of the bunch, just behind the Astana riders. So is Saxo Bank and Garmin. Tension is building up ahead of the last ascent, where the overall classification will surely reshuffled.

The gap is only 2.40 minutes.

16:34:06 CEST

Spilak has accelerated and created a gap to his former breakaway mates. He has 20 seconds already at the 20kms-to-go banner.

16km remaining from 207.5km

16:38:33 CEST

The Slovenian powers up that first part of the climb, not overly steep yet. He extends his advantage to 41 seconds.

15km remaining from 207.5km

16:40:45 CEST

Brian Vandborg of Liquigas is riding hard in front, and the gap is melting - still not as fast as we first thought. Armstrong is on the wheel of Contador, who takes an energy gel out of his jersey back pocket.

16:43:51 CEST

Spilak has one minute. Astarloza tries to go after him, and this makes the chasers' pace pick up.

16:46:18 CEST

Back in the bunch, Milram is now lending a hand in the chase with four riders lined up at the front. Linus Gerdmann is in third position.